No matter how diligent you are with your concert planning adventures, sometimes all it takes is for a last-minute notification dropping into your social media feeds to suddenly leave you scrambling to reconfigure any pre-determined plans currently in place. We had no music plans scheduled for the first Friday evening in April, but when Kingston, ON singer-songwriter Miss Emily posted news of an upcoming show in Cumberland, MD… Well, how could we ignore this?
Okay, so full disclosure states that having a week to prepare our plans was not exactly last-minute, per se. But, making time to finally connect with a JUNO-nominated artist that came to us via a ringing endorsement from a long-time friend of GDW back in 2019, well, we simply could not ignore this. With Miss Emily’s Maryland performance debut happening in Cumberland – the Queen City and unofficial Gateway to Appalachia – it was a no-brainer to make the 90-minute drive from GDW HQ on a Friday evening for some great tunes. Tickets bought!
Over the course of two sets at The Gallery Stage, an intimate and dedicated space for music within The Ferleman Gallery, we had to wonder if Miss Emily has a side hustle as a professional poker player. She could certainly see our 90-minute drive, then called it with a 90-minute performance of her own, before proverbially stating full house as she filled the gallery with a stunning, spontaneous 17-song set to really showcase her musical talents.
“I have to tell you that it is so special to be in a room where we have an all-ages crowd; I feel that doesn’t happen enough,” Miss Emily stated when welcomed to the Gallery Stage. “So, thank you very much for being here, thank you for sharing space together tonight, I appreciate you. Thanks for taking time out of your day, for not being on the couch watching Netflix. Great job, and for supporting the arts, including this amazing space.”
Opening the show sans instrument, Miss Emily would introduce the room to her potent blues-soul vocals immediately with a gorgeous a cappella version of “Standing Stone” – earning plenty of applause following her final line, and which only subsided once she had reached for her acoustic guitar and strapped it across her shoulder. “This is my old bar guitar, and I put it away for years and years and years,” she shared. “I just celebrated my twenty-first anniversary as a full-time musician. I rotated equipment over the years, and … she decided it was time to be back. So, she’s back, and it’s fun bringing her all over. For many years, it was all within a small region of Ontario, Canada.”
For many music fans, the city of Kingston, ON shall always be synonymous with the revered and iconic Canadian band, The Tragically Hip. As a proud Kingstonian, Miss Emily was more than happy to spread the love for The Hip – taking time to discuss her songwriting collaborations with Hip members Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair (who featured prominently on Miss Emily’s 2017 “In Between” album – the very year that vocalist Gord Downie would sadly pass away from his highly publicized battle with glioblastoma). Some of these co-writes with Sinclair and/or Baker were shared in Cumberland, delivering fabulous renditions of both “Land of Greed” and “Fire, Fire, Fire.”
“Hip fans are everywhere. I played a show in Dublin … five or six years ago … and there was a guy in a Tragically Hip shirt,” Miss Emily reminisced. “The Tragically Hip had their success in Canada and a little bit elsewhere, but music really is the universal language, isn’t it?” Switching out her guitar for the keyboards later in the evening, Miss Emily would offer up a cover of the Hip’s hit tune “Bobcaygeon.” “We like The Tragically Hip,” offered a gentleman seated in the room. “Do ya? Interesting,” Miss Emily offered warmly in response. “Maryland, I had no idea! This is also my Maryland debut. Just a hop, skip and an eight-hour drive down the highways. I drove through rain, I had sunshine, I had two seasons. I’m wearing Ugg boots down here. That was the wrong call. It’s summertime and I was not prepared for it.”
Sharing tales at various intervals as to how she discovered blues music from an early age – from being raised in a church-going household in rural Ontario, to her dad’s soul albums in his record collection – Miss Emily would perform a few classic covers of her own. Offering a stellar interpretation of Miss Bessie’s jazz standard, “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” – written by Mike Batt and Jimmie Cox, and popularized by both Nina Simone and Eric Clapton, to name a few, Miss Emily would proceed into a cover of the Phil Phillips hit, “Sea of Love” – one many will recognize as covered by Robert Plant and Jeff Beck (The Honeydrippers) back in the early 80s, and also to an Al Pacino movie of the same name.
Conversing with the room at frequent intervals, Miss Emily shared many tales of her music and career, the impact of the pandemic both professionally and personally, receiving her first JUNO-nomination, and the realization of her daughter’s twentieth birthday this month. “She has a Costco card,” she would jest. “I don’t have a Costco card. My nineteen-year-old has an executive Costco membership.” And what a perfect segue into “Solid Ground,” a song originally recorded back in 2009 and dedicated to her daughter. “This song has been revisited, and it will be on my new album which is coming out in October,” Miss Emily shared. “And I’ll come back to the States when my new album comes out. I made the record in Nashville with a Canadian … named Colin Linden … and he’s a very special person.”
Performing both “The Sellout” and “Silver Lining” with minimal pause between the two heading down the stretch, Miss Emily would retire her acoustic guitar and return to the keyboards to deliver a remarkable and potent version of “Three Words.” Remaining seated behind the keys, she would read the room perfectly, and offer one last tune – a non-encore, encore – and after determining that this final song should be a cover, opted to send everybody home with a popular Beatles number.
A great evening at the Gallery Stage, and for us, better yet having earned all future bragging rights of “we remember when Miss Emily played her first show in Maryland…” Come back soon, Miss Emily – solo, or with the full band – we’d love to do this over again! [Team GDW acknowledge our good friend Joe D.C. for bringing Miss Emily’s music into our lives – we remain forever grateful].
Set List:
- Standing Stone (a cappella)
- Land Of Greed
- Glory
- Sometimes It’s Better to Lose
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out (Miss Bessie cover)
- Sea Of Love (Phil Phillips cover)
- Fire, Fire, Fire
- Bobcaygeon (Tragically Hip cover)
- A Few More Days
- Encore
- In Between
- My Friend
- Solid Ground
- The Sellout
- Silver Lining
- Three Words
Encore:
- In My Life (The Beatles cover)
Photo Credit: The Ferleman Gallery (Concert Poster)
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
